The flight is delayed by an hour, but uneventful. We leave Seattle at about 4:50pm on a Saturday, and because of the time difference and 7 hour flight, we get into Keflavik Airport at about 7:00am on a Sunday. I hate flying so much: I get congested, and wickedly nauseated, and as a fat person it's hard to fit comfortably in a seat (okay, it's pretty impossible to be in coach no matter your size). The airport is pretty small, and I'm surprised by how much I remember (we turn left here and there will be a bathroom on the right, customs is up the stairs, there's a bus terminal right by the exit). Last time I was here was Easter Sunday in 2016, and I was flying back to Seattle. The airport had hidden golden eggs throughout the terminals for kids me to find, and I found two or three before I decided to leave some for others because I'm so very selfless.
It's the law that if you travel by plan you have to take this photo
We board a bus that will take us from the airport to Reykjavík while the wind tries to smother a fellow passenger with his own scarf. Reykjavík, Iceland's capital, is also the world’s most northern capital city. I don't really know where I'm going, but I know I booked in downtown, which is small enough I figure we can find our hotel no matter where the bus drops us. We get off at Stop 14 by the Harpa, and walk with another traveler up, up, up the hill several blocks to our respective hotels. He breaks the ice by saying "Nice sweater" to Jason, who is wearing the same sweater the Dude wears in The Big Lebowski. When we packed that morning, Jason had told me "I didn't have anything else in my backpack, so I packed my Big Lebowski sweater so I can wear it at the Big Lebowski bar!" and like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes.
Hopefully our new friend Trevor (from Victoria—Canada, not Washington) got his hotel room okay, because we do not. We find the building just fine, but the attendant on duty makes a yikes face, and tells us there's a been a booking issue. Apparently they double-booked, so instead they put us in a room at their sister hotel. She confides in us that this is actually fortunate for us, because the current hotel is kinda crappy ("Very old, not very nice," she says) but this other hotel is much newer and nicer. We walk back down the hill to our new hotel, just steps from the bus stop and. They're very kind here, and let us check in early and give us free drinks for later in their bar for the inconvenience.
Heart-shaped hot cocoa (they spell it "coco") on our first morning
We drop our bags and head out to find breakfast on Laugavegur, Reyjkavik's main street. The name means "water road" or "wash road," because back when the road was being built (1880s), women would come down to that street to wash their clothes in geothermal pools. Today, Laugavegur is where the boutiques, tacky tourist shops, tattoo parlors, and restaurants are, so it's a good place to start. We find a tiny cafe in a building that looks like a house. The six tables are full, and the lone teenager behind the counter informs us "It's just me. You can wait, but it's going to take me awhile to get to you." There's an indoor swing chair that's available, so I'm happy to wait. My hot chocolate comes in a heart-shaped mug.
Hallgrímskirkja, the tallest church in Iceland. You can go to the top for a bird's eye view of the city, but our schedule won't work out the entire time we're in Iceland to visit.
Reykjavik has wonderful street art. Buildings and businesses have murals painted on the side, and I search for my old favorite (a woman transforming into a wolf) but it is covered by construction. Iceland is a good place to be an artist. In fact, 25% of Icelanders work in a creative job (and 1 in 10 have published a book, too, by the way). There's a host of reasons why, as this thesis lays out, but it comes down to major factors including an egalitarian society, a de-emphasis on test scores in school, an emphasis on free-play in kids (and adults, as the giant hopscotch on Laugavegur attests), and a national pride in making things by hand.
We walk up and down the blocks, window shopping and people-watching. Shopkeepers are very unlike American cashiers, who often say hello the moment you walk in, welcome you, ask you how you are. They're polite, sure, but not fawning. I say "Hej hej" when I enter (an informal Nordic greeting) and "Takk" when I leave (Icelandic for "thanks"), and hope I'm not basically someone's dad mispronouncing "Gracias" at a Mexican restaurant.
Day valkyrie, night valkyrie
Einstein and Tupac sharing a beer
We walk up and down the blocks, window shopping and people-watching. Shopkeepers are very unlike American cashiers, who often say hello the moment you walk in, welcome you, ask you how you are. They're polite, sure, but not fawning. I say "Hej hej" when I enter (an informal Nordic greeting) and "Takk" when I leave (Icelandic for "thanks"), and hope I'm not basically someone's dad mispronouncing "Gracias" at a Mexican restaurant.
Not sure what they're selling; no plans to find out
We go to the big flea market, but it's not nearly as good as I remember so we leave after looking at just a couple stalls. Jason's tired, so we go back to the hotel so he can take a nap. I prefer to power through jet lag, so I go back out and wander some more. I find a convenience store to get power converters for our cell phone chargers. I get another hot chocolate, this time from a bookstore cafe that apparently has a seagull problem. I drink it outside and people watch, while two musicians (a dad and son, I think) play a mix of classic American music and Icelandic songs. I hear "Ring of Fire," something in Icelandic, and a few more before I get too cold and wander back to the hotel. I've put in 15,000 steps and haven't slept in over 24 hours.
Beware of Steve
When I take this photo, four tourists on electric scooters almost crash trying to see what I’m looking at. From my perspective it looks like the stairs go nowhere, but from their perspective it looks like a weird tourist is taking a photo of nothing special.
Cats are kept as pets throughout Iceland, but they’re especially known for roaming downtown Reykjavík. They came over with the island’s first inhabitants in the ninth century, prized for both their mouse-catching abilities and their fur. Now, there are an estimated 20,000 cats in Iceland (which has a population of only about 376,000 people), and one source puts 12,000 of them in Reykjavík alone. Because geothermal heat is cheap, homes and apartments are easy to keep warm, and folks will leave a window cracked even in winter for a fresh breeze. Which means cats come and go as they please, wandering the town, catching mice and rats, and delighting tourists. With no coyotes, raccoons, or urban foxes, and low speed limits in the city, the cats don’t have much to worry about in terms of predators. Another bonus for the cats of Reykjavík: there aren’t many dogs. Of course, there are working dogs in the country, but dogs were banned in Reykjavík from 1924 all the way through 1984 in order to combat a fatal tapeworm that spread throughout the country.
The friendliest cat I met
For dinner, we go to Lebowski Bar, which has a funky thematic mixture of 40s pin-up, bowling, and 80s/90s American movies. Of course, the main focus is the movie The Big Lebowski, with a Big Lebowski-themed menu (the Donny is a cheeseburger, and the Walter is a bacon cheeseburger) and an extensive White Russian Menu. I specifically wanted to come to the Lebowski Bar because Jason is such a fan of the movie, but my secondary motivation is their milkshakes, which are the best I’ve ever had.
Abiding his time
After dinner, we walk over to Skólavörðustígur Street in the dark to check out the famous Rainbow Street. Originally painted for a Pride celebration, the rainbow section of Skólavörðustígur became permanent in 2019, with citizens—including Reykjavík’s mayor—helping to paint the colorful stripes. During our days in the city, we’ll see dozens of tourists lined up to take photos on the street. Walking back to our hotel for the night, we pass a group of teenagers arguing about which Mario Kart’s “Rainbow Road” level is hardest.
Rainbow Street at night
Extra spicy cat who tolerated Jason but did not like me
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